Re-Crafting Games: The Inner Life of Minecraft Modding Nicholas Watson A Thesis In the Department of Communication Studies Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Communication) at Concordia University Montréal, Québec, Canada May 2019 © Nicholas Watson, 2019 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Nicholas Watson Entitled: Re-Crafting Games: The inner life of Minecraft modding and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Communication) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: Chair Dr. Martin Lefebvre External Examiner Dr. David Nieborg External to Program Dr. Darren Wershler Examiner Dr. Charles Acland Examiner Dr. Owen Chapman Thesis Supervisor Dr. Mia Consalvo Approved by Dr. Jeremy Stolow, Graduate Program Director June 20, 2019 Dr. André Roy Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences ABSTRACT Re-Crafting Games: The inner life of Minecraft Modding Nicholas Watson, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2019 Prior scholarship on game modding has tended to focus on the relationship between commercial developers and modders, while the preponderance of existing work on the open-world sandbox game Minecraft has tended to focus on children’s play or the program’s utility as an educational platform. Based on participant observation, interviews with modders, discourse analysis, and the techniques of software studies, this research uncovers the inner life of Minecraft modding practices, and how they have become central to the way the game is articulated as a cultural artifact. While the creative activities of audiences have previously been described in terms of de Certeau’s concept of “tactics,” this paper argues that modders are also engaged in the development of new strategies. Modders thus become “settlers,” forging a new identity for the game property as they expand the possibilities for play. Emerging modder strategies link to the ways that the underlying game software structures computation, and are closely tied to notions of modularity, interoperability, and programming “best practices.” Modders also mobilize tactics and strategies in the discursive contestation and co-regulation of gameplay meanings and programming practices, which become more central to an understanding of game modding than the developer- modder relationship. This discourse, which structures the circulation of gaming capital within the community, embodies both monologic and dialogic modes, with websites, forum posts, chatroom conversations, and even software artifacts themselves taking on persuasive inflections. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work is dedicated to Seanna and Steve Watson, for their unwavering support over the years that it took to complete. I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to my thesis supervisor, Dr. Mia Consalvo, and to Drs. Bart Simon and Darren Wershler, for advice, guidance, and support; and also to the rest of my examination committee, including Drs. Charles Acland, Owen Chapman, and David Nieborg; and to Drs. Maude Bonenfant, Jeremy Stolow, and William Buxton, who offered feedback on early portions of this project. Thank you also to advisers and mentors of my undergraduate and Master’s programs, who helped to set me on the path that led here: Drs. John Haslem, Larry Breitborde, Celia Pearce, and Amy Bruckman. I am especially grateful to all those in the Minecraft modding community who made this work possible. Some of these people were interviewees and participants in my ethnographic research; others did not participate directly, but provided advice, technical assistance, and guidance on what I should explore and whom I should talk to. In alphabetical order: Alta, asie, capitalthree, card1null, Cervator, copygirl, Icoso, JAvery, LShen, Mezz, modmuss50, Nikky, Omira, Qwil, SarahK, ScriveShark, Tothor, Velo, VicNightfall, XCompWiz, Zoll, and several anonymous helpers and participants. Finally, thank you to Jason Wakeland, Laura Lewellen, Trish Audette, Ryan Scheiding, Victoria Puusa, and Tugger the Siamese cat, for moral support. Funding for portions of this research and related projects was provided by the mLab at Concordia University; the Technoculture, Art, & Games research centre (Concordia University); the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture, and Technology (Concordia University); and a SSHRC-D award grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................ IX I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 1 1.1 Mod, break, win! ................................................................................ 1 1.2 Background on Minecraft ...................................................................... 4 1.3 Variants and lineages of Minecraft .......................................................... 6 1.3.1 Java Edition ........................................................................................................................ 6 1.3.2 Pocket and Bedrock editions .................................................................................................. 7 1.3.3 Legacy console editions ......................................................................................................... 8 1.3.4 MinecraftEdu and Minecraft: Education Edition .................................................................... 8 1.4 Beginning to define "mods" .................................................................. 11 1.5 Modding frameworks .......................................................................... 16 1.6 Blueprint .......................................................................................... 18 1.6.1 Purpose and scope .............................................................................................................. 18 1.6.2 About this document ........................................................................................................... 18 II. REVIEW AND COMMENTARY ON THE LITERATURE ............................ 22 2.1 Under the influence: Mass media and audience passivity.............................. 22 2.1.1 The spectre of effects studies ................................................................................................. 22 2.2 Voices from the listeners ...................................................................... 25 2.2.1 Wandering lines: How videogames invite participatory action ................................................ 28 2.3 Commercial media meet the digital commons ........................................... 31 2.3.1 Making, hacking, remixing ................................................................................................. 33 2.3.2 Converging on co-creation ................................................................................................... 35 2.3.3 Enclosure of the digital commons ......................................................................................... 37 2.4 So… which of these things qualifies as modding? ....................................... 41 2.4.1 Why mod anyway? ............................................................................................................ 44 2.5 Research on Minecraft ........................................................................ 46 2.5.1 A tool for teachers ............................................................................................................... 46 2.5.2 Minecraft in children’s social and psychological development .................................................. 48 2.5.3 Minecraft in play ................................................................................................................ 48 2.5.4 Produsage, platform rhetoric, and Minecraft exceptionalism ................................................... 51 2.6 What’s missing .................................................................................. 53 III. A WORKBENCH OF THEORY AND METHOD .................................... 55 3.1 Rationale ......................................................................................... 55 3.2 Research questions ............................................................................. 55 3.3 Key themes ....................................................................................... 56 3.3.1 Tactics and strategies, poaching and settling ......................................................................... 56 3.3.2 Rationalization and operational logics ................................................................................. 57 3.3.3 Modder discourse and gaming capital ................................................................................... 58 v 3.4 Other theoretical tools ........................................................................ 60 3.4.1 Productive play .................................................................................................................. 60 3.4.2 Remix and hacker culture ................................................................................................... 60 3.5 Methodological orientation .................................................................. 62 3.6 Methodological tools and activities ........................................................ 64 3.6.1 Ethnography